Iranian Man Convicted in New York of Conspiring to Import Heroin to Finance Hezbollah

The drug trade is widely used to fund Jihad. This is especially true of Hezbollah, as this case illustrates, but the drug trade also provides extensive financing for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

An Iranian man faces a sentence of life in prison after he was convicted in federal court in New York of conspiring to import heroin into the U.S. in a scheme to help finance the Hezbollah terror group, prosecutors said.

A jury yesterday took about two hours to convict Siavosh Henareh, 58, after a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in Manhattan

Henareh and two other men, Cetin Asku and Bachar Wehbe, were charged in July last year with conspiring to sell heroin and buy weapons for Hezbollah, a militant organization based in Lebanon that’s designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and Israel.

Aksu pleaded guilty in August to conspiring to provide material support to Hezbollah, conspiring to acquire anti- aircraft missiles, conspiring to import heroin into the U.S. and making false declarations before a federal court, prosecutors said. Wehbe pleaded guilty in November 2011 to conspiring to provide material support to Hezbollah, conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles and obstruction of justice.

Wehbe is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 4, 2013, and Aksu on Aug. 22, 2014, prosecutors said. Both face a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and a maximum term of life.